Naples residents gave $1.25 million to super-PAC promoting Romney candidacy

NAPLES - Naples residents have contributed $1.25 million to a pro-Mitt Romney group that spent millions on negative campaign advertising to help him win the coveted Florida primary.

Romney's leading "super" political action committee, Restore Our Future, received $1 million from Naples resident Francis Rooney, a businessman and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reported last week.

Another contribution of $250,000 came from Domenic Ferrante, a managing director at Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm Romney helped start. Ferrante was listed with a North Naples mailing address in FEC filings.

Restore Our Future collected more than $30 million last year, with more than half that used to blast Romney's opponents, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, on television, on the Internet and by phone. In just the last two weeks, the organization spent more than $4 million on media buys to criticize former House Speaker Gingrich, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance tracking group.

Analysts said the ads pushed Romney to his landslide victory in Florida on Tuesday.

"There were a large percentage of people who said the ads were effective in making up their minds," said Susan MacManus, a distinguished politics professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Super PACs emerged in 2010 after federal court rulings as controversial juggernauts in the political landscape. Donations to candidates are capped at $2,500, but super PACs can collect and spend unlimited amounts of money.

Bill Bain, the consulting manager who founded Bain Capital, has an address in North Naples. He donated the maximum $2,500 to Mitt Romney's campaign in May. Bill Bain told a Daily News reporter he wouldn't talk about his relationship with Romney.

The groups technically aren't tied to the candidates' campaigns but can actively campaign on their behalf. With elections increasingly won or lost by fundraising, super PACs allow corporations and wealthy individuals to make a dramatic impact.

Romney's wasn't the only super PAC in action in Florida, but it was the biggest.

Restore Our Future outspent the pro-Gingrich group Winning Our Future by a margin of roughly 5-1 on television ads. Winning Our Future collected a little more than $2 million in 2011, a fraction of what its Romney counterpart earned.

Among donors to Romney and his allies, employees at Bain Capital have been some of the most generous. Romney made his millions there, buying businesses, increasing their value and selling them.

Bain Capital employees gave $1.4 million to Restore Our Future and $144,000 to the Romney campaign itself, the Center for Responsive Politics reports.

Ferrante, the North Naples managing director, joined Bain Capital in 1993, midway through Romney's tenure as CEO. Ferrante declined to discuss his contribution through a spokesman.

Bill Bain, the consulting manager who founded the group, also has an address in North Naples. He donated the maximum $2,500 to Romney's campaign in May. Bain told a Daily News reporter he wouldn't talk about his relationship with Romney.

Rooney, however, explained his support. He called Romney a "leading exponent" of free enterprise and "believing in a kind of exceptional America."

"We have resources, and this is maybe the most important election in our lifetime," Rooney said.

The former ambassador has met Romney on multiple occasions but said he hasn't done business with him and the donation was unsolicited. Rooney hosted Romney at a fundraising luncheon at the Naples Yacht Club in November.

Restore Our Future's three most generous donors gave $1 million each — 400 times the amount they could have legally given directly to Romney. All were hedge fund managers. The group identified bankers, investors and prominent businessmen among the top donors in its FEC filings.

At least $750,000 came from Bill Koch, a sibling of the two prominent Koch brothers who have undergirded the finances for many GOP, conservative and pro-business causes in recent years. Koch donated $250,000 and Oxbow Carbon LLC, the global energy firm he heads, gave $750,000 more.

To the Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave $10 million this month, making the couple by far the key backers to a group that netted only $2 million last year.

Adelson's donation seemed to be reaping rewards already. Gingrich's speech in Florida late Tuesday included a renewed promise by the candidate that, if elected, he would relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move Adelson has long supported.